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Detour: My Bipolar Road Trip in 4-D
A finely wrought memoir of mental health, Detour takes a genre explored by Susanna Kaysen and Kay Redfield Jamison and propels it in a revelatory and rebellious new direction. Detour is the extraordinary first book by Lizzie Simon, a twenty-three-year-old woman with bipolar disorder. We meet her as she is set to abandon her successful career as a theatrical producer in New York City, with plans to hit the road and find other bipolars like herself -- young, ambitious, opinionated, and truth-seeking. Her to speak with them candidly without judgment, fear, or the slightest trace of anything clinical or jargon-laden. She wants their stories in their words. But after falling in love with her first interviewee, a troubled millionaire, the truth and the path become increasingly difficult to find. She indeed finds inspiring bipolars. Marissa, a twenty-something African-American adoptee; Jan, a popular rock 'n' roll radio deejay and mother of two; Matt, a quiet college student from the South. Each is resilient, wise, healthy, and hopeful. Yet each harbors stories of mania and depression that defy the limits of human experience and survival. But if she's achieving what she set out to do, then why does she feel more alien and alone than ever? Part road trip, part love story, part mystery, Simon has created a heartbreaking narrative of her cross-country quest. With brave humor, Simon writes guilelessly about herself, her past, and her search for "a herd of her own." She explores that shifting gray area where illness and identity intersect and blur, with the eye of an insider and the heart and soul of a survivor. Accessible and unique, Detour not only opens an intimate window on the day-to-day condition of living with a mood disorder, it also speaks to our universally human struggle to become whole.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
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631 people want to read
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January 10, 2015
This book is almost shockingly bad. It began with Simon’s story. Everyone who has been diagnosed with a serious mental disorder has a “story”. That moment when they first realized something was wrong, the moment when the doctor told them, “This is what’s happening,” and the subsequent relief, judgment, and struggles that come after. My own came when I was in college, only a few years older than Simon herself was when her story unfolded. Simon’s story, however, began to irk me. She runs through a brief history of her family life, including the almost universal adoration she enjoyed as a child, and then proclaims that she was tired of the snobbish people at her prep school and scampers off to France to finish her last year of high school, apparently unaware of the blatant ignorance of her own privilege. I nearly choked. France? For the last year of high school? I was lucky to be able to go into town to the movie theatres during a weekend. Unfortunately, this ignorance of her own privilege would be a recurring theme in the book.
Mildly annoyed, I figured if I could just soldier through what comes across as a self-absorbed, privileged girl whining about other people being snobbish, I could get to the interviews, which I was looking forward to.
First, however, we have to wade through more of Simon’s atrocious writing (she includes what I think is a poem - and I use that word loosely - that she wrote which is absolutely cringe-worthy), and her subsequent whirlwind love affair with a multimillionaire mogul who refuses to take his medications, has frequent breakdowns and violent outbursts, and is clearly an alcoholic. Bafflingly, Simon falls in love with him – I think. Her writing makes it hard to determine, but it appears that they’re exchanging soppy “I love you’s” in the space of less than a week. She makes constant excuses for his behavior (“He’s just drunk”, because that’s much better) while encouraging him to seek help. There’s an element of glory to it. The man is clearly cycling through depression and mania and is so unlikeable in the dialogue Simon allows him that I was honestly confounded why on earth she wanted to be with him. It becomes clearer, however, as the book continues.
The purpose of her road trip is ostensibly to find successful young people who have been diagnosed with bipolar in order to fight the stigma of mental illness and give hope to those who suffer from the disorder. Sounds marvelous, doesn’t it? Except Simon’s definition of success seems to be remarkably narrow; those who hold regular 9-5 jobs, who raise kids and families, who are friendly neighbors and good sons and daughters, are not successful to Simon. They’re failures, as far as she’s concerned. Far from taking away from stigma, she manages to add to it. “To you teenagers and twentysomethings, standing on the cusp of a new life and experience, who are newly diagnosed, scared, alone, let it be known that it’s not enough that you do okay. You need to do amazing things like me,” is her apparent sermon. More importantly, stigma is often attached to the less advantaged. While it’s admirable when a celebrity comes out as suffering from a mental illness, it does a lot more to find out that your best friend has one. And there’s where her whirlwind, multimillionaire boyfriend comes in. She manages to glorify mania and bipolar disorder in general.
While Kay Redfield Jamison’s Touched by Fire points out that there are several highly successful composers, poets, and artists who probably or definitely did suffer from bipolar disorder out there, she never claims that bipolar is something to be glorified. It’s a disorder, one that makes people suicidal, or causes them to alienate their friends, lose their money, and destroy their families. Simon happens to have met one person who somehow gets away with his behavior – the rest of us, I would like to interject, would be fired and homeless if we did half the things he does – and so therefore he’s a “success”. And again, we have the problem of her unacknowledged privilege coming into play. Her boyfriend, she states, clearly came from money in the first place. She herself apparently came from a wealthy, supportive family. She seems completely ignorant of those who were born into families that couldn’t afford therapists, or psychiatrists, or medication. Into families that think mental illness is “made up” and think a manic episode is just a person “acting out” or “faking it”. She seems woefully ignorant that she started out on the top, and so looks down on all the people who are just managing to crawl their way out of the pit.
Additionally, she must realize that she’s an exception – not because she’s somehow a magical snowflake, but because of a fluke of genetics that allow her to be diagnosed almost immediately and respond well to the second medication she tries. One would hope she did research into this, which should have enlightened her to the fact that most people with bipolar disorder go years without being properly diagnosed and doctors often have to take a shotgun approach to medication until they find something that works. Other people find that no medication will ever work. Rather than finding this moving, to know of others’ struggles, she seems dismissive, as if her “herd” has failed her in some sort because they were born resistant to modern medications or because they cannot afford to try expensive medication after expensive medication and be constantly frustrated by their lack of effectiveness. But to ask her to find compassion for these people who are fine with living the lives that make them happy, instead of destroying themselves trying to meet her expectations of “success”, presumes too much on Simon’s capacity for empathy.
Finally, there’s the writing, which is abrupt, amateurish, and gimmicky. It feels more like a teenager’s effort than the twenty-three year old successful adult that she claims to be. There are parts that are muddled and confused not for effect, but because her writing lacks clarity, and others that she clearly wants to be muddled and confused because that’s “edgy” and thematic. While there are some authors who are talented enough to get away with this, other authors feel that having a “gimmick” makes up for the lack of talent; Simon is among the latter. Kay Redfield Jamison’s other book, her personal memoir, An Unquiet Mind, provides a startling contrast. Jamison’s book is fluid, elegant, and shows that you don’t need a gimmick if you’re a talented author. Simon’s just highlights her own deficiencies as an author.
The last few pages provided some sort of saving grace; after interviewing about five or six people, realizing that her boyfriend is dangerous, she has an epiphany wherein she realizes that the real purpose was to find out that her diagnosis didn’t set her apart from people as she had imagined. Her “herd” was not those who struggle with mental illness, but her family, and she needed to make the steps to rectify that.
Which is all well and good and very touching, but rather disingenuous. I picked up a book wanting to hear people’s stories, as the book bills itself to be, not one self-absorbed girl’s attempts to finally wade through her own ego to find the truth. In the end, her realization of the truth is too little, too late.
Mildly annoyed, I figured if I could just soldier through what comes across as a self-absorbed, privileged girl whining about other people being snobbish, I could get to the interviews, which I was looking forward to.
First, however, we have to wade through more of Simon’s atrocious writing (she includes what I think is a poem - and I use that word loosely - that she wrote which is absolutely cringe-worthy), and her subsequent whirlwind love affair with a multimillionaire mogul who refuses to take his medications, has frequent breakdowns and violent outbursts, and is clearly an alcoholic. Bafflingly, Simon falls in love with him – I think. Her writing makes it hard to determine, but it appears that they’re exchanging soppy “I love you’s” in the space of less than a week. She makes constant excuses for his behavior (“He’s just drunk”, because that’s much better) while encouraging him to seek help. There’s an element of glory to it. The man is clearly cycling through depression and mania and is so unlikeable in the dialogue Simon allows him that I was honestly confounded why on earth she wanted to be with him. It becomes clearer, however, as the book continues.
The purpose of her road trip is ostensibly to find successful young people who have been diagnosed with bipolar in order to fight the stigma of mental illness and give hope to those who suffer from the disorder. Sounds marvelous, doesn’t it? Except Simon’s definition of success seems to be remarkably narrow; those who hold regular 9-5 jobs, who raise kids and families, who are friendly neighbors and good sons and daughters, are not successful to Simon. They’re failures, as far as she’s concerned. Far from taking away from stigma, she manages to add to it. “To you teenagers and twentysomethings, standing on the cusp of a new life and experience, who are newly diagnosed, scared, alone, let it be known that it’s not enough that you do okay. You need to do amazing things like me,” is her apparent sermon. More importantly, stigma is often attached to the less advantaged. While it’s admirable when a celebrity comes out as suffering from a mental illness, it does a lot more to find out that your best friend has one. And there’s where her whirlwind, multimillionaire boyfriend comes in. She manages to glorify mania and bipolar disorder in general.
While Kay Redfield Jamison’s Touched by Fire points out that there are several highly successful composers, poets, and artists who probably or definitely did suffer from bipolar disorder out there, she never claims that bipolar is something to be glorified. It’s a disorder, one that makes people suicidal, or causes them to alienate their friends, lose their money, and destroy their families. Simon happens to have met one person who somehow gets away with his behavior – the rest of us, I would like to interject, would be fired and homeless if we did half the things he does – and so therefore he’s a “success”. And again, we have the problem of her unacknowledged privilege coming into play. Her boyfriend, she states, clearly came from money in the first place. She herself apparently came from a wealthy, supportive family. She seems completely ignorant of those who were born into families that couldn’t afford therapists, or psychiatrists, or medication. Into families that think mental illness is “made up” and think a manic episode is just a person “acting out” or “faking it”. She seems woefully ignorant that she started out on the top, and so looks down on all the people who are just managing to crawl their way out of the pit.
Additionally, she must realize that she’s an exception – not because she’s somehow a magical snowflake, but because of a fluke of genetics that allow her to be diagnosed almost immediately and respond well to the second medication she tries. One would hope she did research into this, which should have enlightened her to the fact that most people with bipolar disorder go years without being properly diagnosed and doctors often have to take a shotgun approach to medication until they find something that works. Other people find that no medication will ever work. Rather than finding this moving, to know of others’ struggles, she seems dismissive, as if her “herd” has failed her in some sort because they were born resistant to modern medications or because they cannot afford to try expensive medication after expensive medication and be constantly frustrated by their lack of effectiveness. But to ask her to find compassion for these people who are fine with living the lives that make them happy, instead of destroying themselves trying to meet her expectations of “success”, presumes too much on Simon’s capacity for empathy.
Finally, there’s the writing, which is abrupt, amateurish, and gimmicky. It feels more like a teenager’s effort than the twenty-three year old successful adult that she claims to be. There are parts that are muddled and confused not for effect, but because her writing lacks clarity, and others that she clearly wants to be muddled and confused because that’s “edgy” and thematic. While there are some authors who are talented enough to get away with this, other authors feel that having a “gimmick” makes up for the lack of talent; Simon is among the latter. Kay Redfield Jamison’s other book, her personal memoir, An Unquiet Mind, provides a startling contrast. Jamison’s book is fluid, elegant, and shows that you don’t need a gimmick if you’re a talented author. Simon’s just highlights her own deficiencies as an author.
The last few pages provided some sort of saving grace; after interviewing about five or six people, realizing that her boyfriend is dangerous, she has an epiphany wherein she realizes that the real purpose was to find out that her diagnosis didn’t set her apart from people as she had imagined. Her “herd” was not those who struggle with mental illness, but her family, and she needed to make the steps to rectify that.
Which is all well and good and very touching, but rather disingenuous. I picked up a book wanting to hear people’s stories, as the book bills itself to be, not one self-absorbed girl’s attempts to finally wade through her own ego to find the truth. In the end, her realization of the truth is too little, too late.
December 30, 2010
I don’t feel like this is so much a journey into what it’s like to suffer with a mental illness as what it is to be a privileged, self absorbed individual commercializing their mental illness. Her measure of “success” is extremely narrow minded, revolving primarily around making her feel better about her life. She classifies herself as being able to live a “successful” life, but it’s a life that goes from being obsessed with work to completely blowing everything off to go on some inane road trip...not my idea of success. She downplays individuals she encounters who, while they may not be out running production companies, have reached a point where they can overcome their bi-polar illness and lead a normal life filled with family and friends. She is so focused on the idea that to be successful you have to attain some sort of measurable accomplishment...maybe it’s just me, but I feel like she should have been spending a little less time trying to prove something to the world and a little more time on building stronger relationships with those in her personal life. I don’t see this as a healthy reference for those who are coping with bi-polar to turn to for support.
December 21, 2015
There are a lot of memoirs about bipolar out there and if you are looking for a really good one, this book is not it. Some of the aspects of bipolar were oversimplified a little too much in my opinion. "Madness" by Marya Hornbacher is an excellent read about bipolar as is "An Unquiet Mind" by Kay Redfield Jamison. There are also two well-written, realistic accounts of bipolar written by Patty Duke. I would recommend those before "Detour."
August 20, 2014
Berendt in his review comments on Simon's "ingenious inquiry" into manic depression. This 'inquiry' consists of less than 1/3 of the writing in the book. In truth what this book consists of is Lizzie Simon's ode to herself.
The interviews that Simon does to undertake her inquiry into the lives of the Bipolar famous are terrible. She questions the answers that her interviewees give her. When her interviewee does not give her the answer she is looking for she will try over and over again to get the answer out of them.
For most the interviews I found that her line of questioning wasn't really helpful to people in general. Her questions related specifically to events within her own life.
Perhaps if she started out with the truth, that she was searching for direction in her own life and had no intention of making something that would help other young bipolar people or help de-stigmatize bipolar people in the press I wouldn't be so hard on her. But, she sets out saying, "I want to demonstrate how it feels to be young and bipolar, and I want to show that people survive this illness and live full lives. I want to figure out what worked in people who are success cases, and shift people's focus away from all the media attention on destructive and violent cases."
There is more in this book about Berenson than all the other bipolar people she interviews combined. Simon fails in her purpose, drawing the most attention to the most violent and messed up case and taking the attention away from the successful cases.
Simon also takes away from the success cases by saying they just aren't as successful as she was looking to interview for her book. She says, "Don't you get it? I'm looking for lawyers, dancers, poets, businessmen. I'm looking for the chiefs, the sorcerers, the legends." Normal people will not cut it for Simon.
She gets depressed after interviewing perhaps three people and says, "I'm not doing what I set out to do. I'm visiting horrific meetings and talking to depressing idiots at mental health associations. I haven't met myself yet down here. WHY NOT? How do I? I'm a superstar alien from another galaxy!"
She says, "I liked Marissa, Jan, and Matt, I liked them a lot, but I'm not feeling the herd thing. I'm not sensing everything from my past clicking into place." This is after all all about her. Not really about helping young bipolar people see that there is hope to live a normal life.
She continues, "I'm not feeling my brain and soul relax with the new spiritual community I've found. Not at all...Wait...Maybe they're not successful enough. Maybe I need to find super-high bipolar achievers, people who are taking over, people who are on top of their game, magical wondrous bipolar beings."
To me it sounds more like she is interested in undiagnosed or untreated BP. The closest she comes to finding a 'super-high' bipolar achiever is Nick, who is also the one with the most problems, with behavior, with drugs and with people. I feel that Simon is idealizing the mania in BP, her book seems as if it condones manic behavior for giving people the energy to do 'amazing' things, but not mentioning the side-effects.
She is even worse on the other people she meets as potential interviewees who don't make it. She basically calls them crazy. Here she is trying to fight off stigma, but she stigmatizes people who go to group therapy, basically people who are still suffering from some elements of BP, but not in their manic stages, trying to treat it and be normal.
Here Simon says, "I'm afraid of the mentally ill...I'm afraid they'll be smelly, their hair unkempt and sticking to their heads. I'm afraid they'll speak and make no sense. I'm afraid the old men will hit on me."
I would say that Simon suffers more from Narcissistic Personality Disorder than BP. I bet her NPI score would be off the charts!
The interviews that Simon does to undertake her inquiry into the lives of the Bipolar famous are terrible. She questions the answers that her interviewees give her. When her interviewee does not give her the answer she is looking for she will try over and over again to get the answer out of them.
For most the interviews I found that her line of questioning wasn't really helpful to people in general. Her questions related specifically to events within her own life.
Perhaps if she started out with the truth, that she was searching for direction in her own life and had no intention of making something that would help other young bipolar people or help de-stigmatize bipolar people in the press I wouldn't be so hard on her. But, she sets out saying, "I want to demonstrate how it feels to be young and bipolar, and I want to show that people survive this illness and live full lives. I want to figure out what worked in people who are success cases, and shift people's focus away from all the media attention on destructive and violent cases."
There is more in this book about Berenson than all the other bipolar people she interviews combined. Simon fails in her purpose, drawing the most attention to the most violent and messed up case and taking the attention away from the successful cases.
Simon also takes away from the success cases by saying they just aren't as successful as she was looking to interview for her book. She says, "Don't you get it? I'm looking for lawyers, dancers, poets, businessmen. I'm looking for the chiefs, the sorcerers, the legends." Normal people will not cut it for Simon.
She gets depressed after interviewing perhaps three people and says, "I'm not doing what I set out to do. I'm visiting horrific meetings and talking to depressing idiots at mental health associations. I haven't met myself yet down here. WHY NOT? How do I? I'm a superstar alien from another galaxy!"
She says, "I liked Marissa, Jan, and Matt, I liked them a lot, but I'm not feeling the herd thing. I'm not sensing everything from my past clicking into place." This is after all all about her. Not really about helping young bipolar people see that there is hope to live a normal life.
She continues, "I'm not feeling my brain and soul relax with the new spiritual community I've found. Not at all...Wait...Maybe they're not successful enough. Maybe I need to find super-high bipolar achievers, people who are taking over, people who are on top of their game, magical wondrous bipolar beings."
To me it sounds more like she is interested in undiagnosed or untreated BP. The closest she comes to finding a 'super-high' bipolar achiever is Nick, who is also the one with the most problems, with behavior, with drugs and with people. I feel that Simon is idealizing the mania in BP, her book seems as if it condones manic behavior for giving people the energy to do 'amazing' things, but not mentioning the side-effects.
She is even worse on the other people she meets as potential interviewees who don't make it. She basically calls them crazy. Here she is trying to fight off stigma, but she stigmatizes people who go to group therapy, basically people who are still suffering from some elements of BP, but not in their manic stages, trying to treat it and be normal.
Here Simon says, "I'm afraid of the mentally ill...I'm afraid they'll be smelly, their hair unkempt and sticking to their heads. I'm afraid they'll speak and make no sense. I'm afraid the old men will hit on me."
I would say that Simon suffers more from Narcissistic Personality Disorder than BP. I bet her NPI score would be off the charts!
November 18, 2013
I could've read this in one sitting, but I had to sleep. So I did it in two. SO good. I love any first-person accounts of what it is like to live with a mental illness. I've read a lot of negative reviews of this book because the author (a young woman with bipolar) goes in search of successful people who have transcended their diagnosis, and according to these critics, that makes her pretentious. Do these "critics" wish to hear just another tragedy of a bipolar person ending up a chronic mental institution patient? Cuz I've read enough of those, and to be honest, I don't need to read any more. As the author states, "Everybody has read the same two or three books about this illness, because that's all that's out there." Not anymore.
August 25, 2009
The concept was good but she wasn't the right person for the job and she failed at it. The author is very judgemental and does not seem to appreciate the fact that "success" is measured in different ways. For most people with BP just getting up in the morning and functioning is a success story. She was only interested in people who do "extraordinary things" as she put it.
It also seems that she wasn't completely in touch with her own issues while writing the book. She was extremely disfunctional yet was very judgemental of people who were suffering any type of BP symptom. She only acknowledges her one time in her life when she was suffering from BP symptoms-the time that she was diagnosed as BP. She was obviously still suffering long afterward though the symptoms were not as extreme.
I do not suggest this book for people struggling with BP as it is biased at best. Some people with experience with the illness may find this offensive and people with no knowledge could easily get the wrong idea.
It also seems that she wasn't completely in touch with her own issues while writing the book. She was extremely disfunctional yet was very judgemental of people who were suffering any type of BP symptom. She only acknowledges her one time in her life when she was suffering from BP symptoms-the time that she was diagnosed as BP. She was obviously still suffering long afterward though the symptoms were not as extreme.
I do not suggest this book for people struggling with BP as it is biased at best. Some people with experience with the illness may find this offensive and people with no knowledge could easily get the wrong idea.
February 28, 2017
This book describes a road trip the author took to find and interview other successful adults living with bipolar disorder. The idea behind the book is a good one, and the book might actually have been good if the author had done a better job of researching and writing it. Instead, the reader is confronted with the authors' half baked journal entries written while she was trying to pursue her 'project'. Some semblance of a story emerges from these writings but I wouldn't even consider it a good first draft. I had a hard time getting through this book although I think there is some value in her renditions of the lives of the few people she did manage to interview.
March 4, 2017
Lizzie Simon was diagnosed as bipolar when she was 17 years old. After a few years of fits and starts, she found herself wondering what it's like to live successfully with bipolar disorder: "I have this idea," she writes, "I want to find other bipolar people like me and interview them....I want to show that people survive this illness and live full lives. I want to figure out what worked in people who are success cases, and shift people's focus away from all the media attention on destructive and violent cases" (page 41).
So Lizzie takes a road trip (as hinted at in her book's title). Along the way, she meets disappointing cases--like "Nicholas," who remains in denial about his condition, and copes with his symptoms through alcohol and drug abuse. "Everybody I interviewed for this book is diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder, between the ages of sixteen and thirty-five, on medicine, and highly functional in society" (page 209)
Lizzie grows through the course of her Road Trip. At first, she sought a "herd" of people who were "just like her" for comfort. But what she later realizes is that she had always had a "herd": "My family is, of course, the original herd. They were the herd I'd always had, and when I was done wandering, they became the herd that welcomed me back. For that I am truly blessed" (page 205)
Simon's book is studded with this and other thought-provoking insights, for instance:
"People who dedicate themselves to personal growth do grow, and they get to enjoy their work almost every day of their lives" (page 207)
"We do not share the same illness, for we each experience it differently. But we do share the same diagnosis" (page 210)
For insights like this, readers will enjoy Lizzie Simon's book. I zoomed through it in a few days--it's readable, absorbing, and insightful.
So Lizzie takes a road trip (as hinted at in her book's title). Along the way, she meets disappointing cases--like "Nicholas," who remains in denial about his condition, and copes with his symptoms through alcohol and drug abuse. "Everybody I interviewed for this book is diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder, between the ages of sixteen and thirty-five, on medicine, and highly functional in society" (page 209)
Lizzie grows through the course of her Road Trip. At first, she sought a "herd" of people who were "just like her" for comfort. But what she later realizes is that she had always had a "herd": "My family is, of course, the original herd. They were the herd I'd always had, and when I was done wandering, they became the herd that welcomed me back. For that I am truly blessed" (page 205)
Simon's book is studded with this and other thought-provoking insights, for instance:
"People who dedicate themselves to personal growth do grow, and they get to enjoy their work almost every day of their lives" (page 207)
"We do not share the same illness, for we each experience it differently. But we do share the same diagnosis" (page 210)
For insights like this, readers will enjoy Lizzie Simon's book. I zoomed through it in a few days--it's readable, absorbing, and insightful.
July 24, 2011
I can't say I liked it all that much, but it is a successful woman in her 20s with Bipolar writing about her first horrible experience of mania, her job success while in treatment with Lithium, and her bits of self-discovery as she takes a road trip looking for other successful on-their-meds 20-somethings. She brings the journals she has kept since she was a child on the road trip with her, and sees signs of the illness at a very young age. The book is likely full of triggers for people with Bipolar, but its benefit seems to be the comfort of recognizing yourself (if you have Bipolar or Depression) in so much of her and the others she meets. I saw her realize and recognize that during her best times when she feels like her treatment is working and she is being successful in life, she still has trouble showering and doing other "small" self-care type things that go unnoticed by others unless they live with you, and often even then. And that this doesn't take away from her success or her joy at being someone whose treatment is working. She got a $10,000 grant from a mental health organization to take the road trip and write the book. She did not succeed in what she set out to do with this project, but revealing the process instead of just the lackluster results has made an entirely different book than she intended. One that is probably more real, because it gives us her inner life/thoughts over several months instead of just the answers people give to her interview questions.
July 25, 2012
An interesting enough premise: Simon, a young bipolar woman in her 20s takes a roadtrip to find and interview other bipolar people. The catch is that Simon is only interested in interviewing bipolar people who are as "successful" as she is. This condescending goal in mind, Simon proceeds to fall in love with the most unstable of her interviewees, overshare about her sex life (a common problem amongst white female writers, see Eat, Pray, Love), and brag about how high-functioning she is, while often forgetting to eat, sleep or bathe. There is nothing trivial about bipolar disorder, but somehow Simon manages to trivialize the everyday struggles of people with bipolar disorder and focus on the ways in which they don't measure up to her hypocritical standards. As someone with bipolar disorder herself, Simon puts herself on a pedestal instead of treating her interviewees with the compassion you'd expect from someone with a similar medical condition.
I wish this book were so much more than it is, because despite her claims of success and normalcy, Simon's bad decisions and shocking lack of self awareness make her a less than ideal role model for young bipolar adults. This book is a trainwreck of a memoir; it's difficult and upsetting to watch Simon carry on so irresponsibly and naively when she thinks she has it all figured out.
I wish this book were so much more than it is, because despite her claims of success and normalcy, Simon's bad decisions and shocking lack of self awareness make her a less than ideal role model for young bipolar adults. This book is a trainwreck of a memoir; it's difficult and upsetting to watch Simon carry on so irresponsibly and naively when she thinks she has it all figured out.
February 28, 2012
This book was part of my writing course; I don't think I would have picked it up had I not been forced to. The writing itself was rather poor, and the author was a judgmental bitch. It was set up in a way that was quick and easy, though. The idea of the story is that she has bipolar and decides to travel the country interviewing other bipolar people. However, it gets rather confusing because the interviews aren't really central to the story. The ending wraps it up nicely, explaining why, but for the majority of the book the reader is left confused. We only had to read this book because we're stealing the idea for a project: we each choose one thing that identifies ourselves, find facts, interview some people with similar traits, and write a researched memoir about it. I wouldn't suggest this book to anyone, really. I've seen much better memoirs, and I've seen a lot of books about disorders/traits. This isn't anywhere near the top.
September 12, 2020
Other reviews have already laid out a solid case, but just for reinforcement: this book was not good. I kept waiting for the awkward writing style to click for me. It did not. I waited for the author to have some realization of how self-absorbed and derisive she was being. She did not. Instead I sat through 200 pages of her reveling in her and her love interest's wealth, oscillating between self critique and bragging of her amazing ambitions and accomplishments, and criticizing almost everyone she encounters for not living up to her expectations. I hope the people she wrote about never read this. The topic is interesting, but there must be better books on bipolar disorder out there.
November 10, 2008
This lady has taken the bull by the horns, and faced and dealt with a chronic lifetime illness with imagination and compassion. One of the best books I have read about bipolar illness. She has used interviews with other people who suffer from the same thing to give a wide perspective of this problem, and the different ways people have of dealing with it. In this way, she also learns how to cope with her own illness, as well as a deeper understanding of the human side to a textbook illness that can, at times, devastate a human life.
November 16, 2008
Very honest account of life with bipolar when it takes one by surprise. Proactive about seeking support and understanding from other young people with the same struggle Lizzie is lead to embark on a meaningful tour. The experiences of which she wholeheartedly and compassionately shares with her readers in hopes that it will help someone else. What a beautiful book; what a gift to the world of bipolar!
April 27, 2009
The author's willingness to reveal both herself and her illness makes
this a brave book. I recently took a class focused on writing memoir
and this book was a type of memoir we studied. After that, twenty-year
olds wrote about their illnesses, illnesses of family members, death
and other challenges. These undergrad students followed the lead of Lizzie Simon and became willing to take greater risks in writing. The
ability to put transcripts on e-mail expedites sharing.
this a brave book. I recently took a class focused on writing memoir
and this book was a type of memoir we studied. After that, twenty-year
olds wrote about their illnesses, illnesses of family members, death
and other challenges. These undergrad students followed the lead of Lizzie Simon and became willing to take greater risks in writing. The
ability to put transcripts on e-mail expedites sharing.
July 25, 2007
This book surprised me & wasn't a bad read. The best part was I learned things about "why" I became manic when I was put on an anti-depressant. You'd think a psychiatrist would've told me that since I'd been seeing one for over 5 years, but none did.
This book may be as enlightening for others as well.
This book may be as enlightening for others as well.
November 10, 2008
Just what I was looking for -- someone writing about bipolar success stories and what it takes to be healthy with bipolar. After reading so much gloom and doom this book soothed me with honesty and humor.
February 1, 2010
uh, this book sucks. lizzie simon is melodramatic and boring. sure, there are plenty of us out there being bipolar, but this isn't romance. she's trite and horrible and apparently no one bothered to hire her an editor, because her dialogue and punctuation are shit.
i hated this book so much, i stopped 50 pages short of the end. lizzie simon can suck it.
i hated this book so much, i stopped 50 pages short of the end. lizzie simon can suck it.
March 7, 2013
I liked the first part of this book right before she left on her road trip. After that, I found her to be a judgmental bitch who thinks she knows it all about what it means to be successful and have bipolar disorder. Her condescending attitude towards people and snap judgments about people really pissed me off. The end was relatively better but I was disappointed in this book.
January 16, 2017
Sadly I had higher expectations for this book. As a psychologist I was hoping to see more (detailed life history for others with the disorder to follow, more ability to connect to the writer, better treatment recommendations for those with questions) just more. At least the account was real and accurate.
July 21, 2016
I enjoyed this. I know people were critical of her privileged perspective. I get that. But this is her story, and she shouldn't be faulted for not having an insightful or worldly perspective at the age of 23. Everyone has their truth, and this is hers. She was brave to write it.
April 12, 2013
This is the worst book on bipolar disorder that I have ever read. The author measures success by how much bipolar individuals are able to conform to society.
June 20, 2017
Didn't like it at all. The author comes off as condescending and unlikable. Two undesirable characteristics in a memoir..
April 21, 2017
Was this book even edited?
August 15, 2019
The author is so impossibly self-involved that you can't feel any sympathy for her. Very unpleasant to read--I couldn't even finish it.
December 2, 2008
As a memoir of self-discovery and mental illness, Detour is a stand-out in the genre, better by far than Marya Hornbacher's maddening and self-indulgent Madness.
As for the author's stated goal, which is splashed across the back cover, she failed. To present Detour as one woman's journey to present a cross-section of other individual struggles with bipolar and a search for commonality across the U.S. would be a wretched disservice to the book. (In fairness to the author, about 3/4 of the way through the book, she blatantly gives up, saying as much and recognizing that she won't achieve the incredibly ambitious goal she set for herself.)
The original intent of the book was brilliant: travel the continental U.S., searching out and interviewing other young bipolar success stories in order to discover a sort of extended, supportive family. This book doesn't present that, although I find that to be a shame. I think Simon could have succeeded in her goal if she had planned better and had not depended so much on sheer luck in the beginning. Without keeping in mind that privacy laws would end up preventing medical professionals and even leaders of support groups and mental health associations from speaking with her, except for in the most general of terms, Simon handicapped her own project from the start. Beyond that, her system of contacting support group and health associations had, in my opinion, an unforeseen drawback: the success stories, the type of people she was looking for, probably would not be found in those kinds of settings. She eventually faced all this through the process of trial and error, and the reader realizes pretty quickly that this is not the story of her project, this is the story of Simon becoming more comfortable with herself and with her illness.
(Someone should still try and complete the task Simon outlined in the book, however. I think it's brilliant, and I think, if carried out properly, it could touch a lot of people who really need it.)
There are only two things about Detour that I found to be jarring, even distasteful, and perhaps a little hypocritical, and neither of those are the "failure" of the stated project.
First, Simon limited herself to a very tight, very elitist definition of success. She wanted young people who were in the spotlight, who were doing amazing things, who were creative and pillars of their communities. She wanted highly function, highly successful bipolar stories without relapse, without multiple failures. All this is fine, but she failed to take into account other types of success: those who managed to treat their illness and contribute to their greater communities, be a positive influence in their families, manage a social circle and life outside of their illness, and who were able, despite their own mind and body's rebellion, to have jobs and careers and be self-supporting. None of that is the glamorous side to success Simon was looking for, but to many, many people with mental illness, just having a regular life, complete with family, friends, a career, and the stability all that brings, is an incredible amount of success. And I think, sadly, Simon forgot that in her search to find these brightly burning stars of the bipolar universe. In fact, she even, at times, seems to sneer at those who saw their 8-to-5 jobs and personal responsibilities as success; the only time she comes close to realizing how amazing that level is for many people is during the final interview with Sara, who stated as much. Success is knowing what you can and cannot do without falling apart again, and Simon doesn't seem to take that into consideration.
Second, every time she made an appointment to shadow a support group meeting, I cringed. She states throughout the book that she's trying to fight the stigma attached to the mentally ill, that she's trying to dispel all the stereotypes, and yet...her own mentality is one full of both. To sit in a support group meeting and mock (mentally, in writing, or to their faces) the people there is horrendous and enormously hypocritical. Her reactions to the people at the support group and her anger that they aren't the "type" of people she's looking for reads as much more a reflection on Simon's state of mind than on the people who were kind enough to try and help her. While not uncommon, it did take away considerably from the impact of the book, at least for me. Furthermore, though this is certainly not a big part of the book, her casual dismissive attitude regarding unipolar depression is somewhat irksome. When referring to regular depression as opposed to bipolar, she actually writes, "...she was just unipolar." Seemingly unimportant, but jarring to anyone who knows unipolar depression is anything but "just."
However, despite a shallow and half-assed attempt at the stated goal for the book, Detour is not a failure. In fact, I wish it had been longer, and I wish she had delved more into her own thought processes. Not just the cycles she went through or the causes of the illness, but why she had come to her beliefs regarding bipolar, how her opinions about the illness were formed, etc. When she stopped focusing on the external and turned inward to her own struggle, she found her niche and wrote a fresh, honest memoir. Brutally honest, stripped down, and unflinching, her descriptions of her illness, of her thought processes, and even of her own journey through bipolar are some of the most poignant writing on the subject I've read. Several times, she described thoughts or feelings that had me nodding, having felt exactly the same way. Simon is not a shoddy writer, and her staccato style was effective in moving the narrative along. Really well done, especially, as I said before, it's quite obvious from early on that this was not about presenting bipolar illness as a society. Detour was, as it should have been, about Lizzie Simon. There is nothing wrong with that, and when she realized it, the book really caught fire.
I just wish she had realized it earlier. Detour is good, but it could have been so much more. I wish she had delved deeper, but still, not a bad read, and certainly not a bad start.
As for the author's stated goal, which is splashed across the back cover, she failed. To present Detour as one woman's journey to present a cross-section of other individual struggles with bipolar and a search for commonality across the U.S. would be a wretched disservice to the book. (In fairness to the author, about 3/4 of the way through the book, she blatantly gives up, saying as much and recognizing that she won't achieve the incredibly ambitious goal she set for herself.)
The original intent of the book was brilliant: travel the continental U.S., searching out and interviewing other young bipolar success stories in order to discover a sort of extended, supportive family. This book doesn't present that, although I find that to be a shame. I think Simon could have succeeded in her goal if she had planned better and had not depended so much on sheer luck in the beginning. Without keeping in mind that privacy laws would end up preventing medical professionals and even leaders of support groups and mental health associations from speaking with her, except for in the most general of terms, Simon handicapped her own project from the start. Beyond that, her system of contacting support group and health associations had, in my opinion, an unforeseen drawback: the success stories, the type of people she was looking for, probably would not be found in those kinds of settings. She eventually faced all this through the process of trial and error, and the reader realizes pretty quickly that this is not the story of her project, this is the story of Simon becoming more comfortable with herself and with her illness.
(Someone should still try and complete the task Simon outlined in the book, however. I think it's brilliant, and I think, if carried out properly, it could touch a lot of people who really need it.)
There are only two things about Detour that I found to be jarring, even distasteful, and perhaps a little hypocritical, and neither of those are the "failure" of the stated project.
First, Simon limited herself to a very tight, very elitist definition of success. She wanted young people who were in the spotlight, who were doing amazing things, who were creative and pillars of their communities. She wanted highly function, highly successful bipolar stories without relapse, without multiple failures. All this is fine, but she failed to take into account other types of success: those who managed to treat their illness and contribute to their greater communities, be a positive influence in their families, manage a social circle and life outside of their illness, and who were able, despite their own mind and body's rebellion, to have jobs and careers and be self-supporting. None of that is the glamorous side to success Simon was looking for, but to many, many people with mental illness, just having a regular life, complete with family, friends, a career, and the stability all that brings, is an incredible amount of success. And I think, sadly, Simon forgot that in her search to find these brightly burning stars of the bipolar universe. In fact, she even, at times, seems to sneer at those who saw their 8-to-5 jobs and personal responsibilities as success; the only time she comes close to realizing how amazing that level is for many people is during the final interview with Sara, who stated as much. Success is knowing what you can and cannot do without falling apart again, and Simon doesn't seem to take that into consideration.
Second, every time she made an appointment to shadow a support group meeting, I cringed. She states throughout the book that she's trying to fight the stigma attached to the mentally ill, that she's trying to dispel all the stereotypes, and yet...her own mentality is one full of both. To sit in a support group meeting and mock (mentally, in writing, or to their faces) the people there is horrendous and enormously hypocritical. Her reactions to the people at the support group and her anger that they aren't the "type" of people she's looking for reads as much more a reflection on Simon's state of mind than on the people who were kind enough to try and help her. While not uncommon, it did take away considerably from the impact of the book, at least for me. Furthermore, though this is certainly not a big part of the book, her casual dismissive attitude regarding unipolar depression is somewhat irksome. When referring to regular depression as opposed to bipolar, she actually writes, "...she was just unipolar." Seemingly unimportant, but jarring to anyone who knows unipolar depression is anything but "just."
However, despite a shallow and half-assed attempt at the stated goal for the book, Detour is not a failure. In fact, I wish it had been longer, and I wish she had delved more into her own thought processes. Not just the cycles she went through or the causes of the illness, but why she had come to her beliefs regarding bipolar, how her opinions about the illness were formed, etc. When she stopped focusing on the external and turned inward to her own struggle, she found her niche and wrote a fresh, honest memoir. Brutally honest, stripped down, and unflinching, her descriptions of her illness, of her thought processes, and even of her own journey through bipolar are some of the most poignant writing on the subject I've read. Several times, she described thoughts or feelings that had me nodding, having felt exactly the same way. Simon is not a shoddy writer, and her staccato style was effective in moving the narrative along. Really well done, especially, as I said before, it's quite obvious from early on that this was not about presenting bipolar illness as a society. Detour was, as it should have been, about Lizzie Simon. There is nothing wrong with that, and when she realized it, the book really caught fire.
I just wish she had realized it earlier. Detour is good, but it could have been so much more. I wish she had delved deeper, but still, not a bad read, and certainly not a bad start.
June 28, 2023
I'd give it a 2.5 but I rounded up to be nice. I was optimistic about this book because it seemed, per title, to be relatable. I also have bipolar! And went on a manic road trip! What could be more on point?
Unfortunately, like some other reviewers have noted, the author's life is not relatable to mine, like at all. She went manic in Paris, because her family could afford to send her to a private high school in Paris. She dated a multi-millionaire, was worried about running out of money when she had *ten thousand* dollars in savings in the NINETIES when money had even more purchasing power - not to mention a multi-millionaire boyfriend one phone call away. So like, no, I cannot relate to this bourgeois nonsense. It really peeves me out when rich people talk about how worried they are about money. 10,000 dollars????? Help!
The redeeming points were that some of the interviews with other people with bipolar were symptomatically relatable, and I also enjoyed some of the descriptions of geography on her journey - although these were sparse.
Unfortunately, like some other reviewers have noted, the author's life is not relatable to mine, like at all. She went manic in Paris, because her family could afford to send her to a private high school in Paris. She dated a multi-millionaire, was worried about running out of money when she had *ten thousand* dollars in savings in the NINETIES when money had even more purchasing power - not to mention a multi-millionaire boyfriend one phone call away. So like, no, I cannot relate to this bourgeois nonsense. It really peeves me out when rich people talk about how worried they are about money. 10,000 dollars????? Help!
The redeeming points were that some of the interviews with other people with bipolar were symptomatically relatable, and I also enjoyed some of the descriptions of geography on her journey - although these were sparse.
January 11, 2025
Detour is the first book I've read about people with bipolar disorder, and I found it illuminating. Lizzie Simon’s description of her first psychotic episode and journey to getting a diagnosis is raw and honest. Her interviews with the other bipolar people she meets on her road trip are engaging and informative. I like how she always asks them what advice they would give young bipolar people and their families. I like how she delves into the issue of medication, and how much it affects the bipolar person’s true temperament.
My favorite part of the book was the ending. Simon does a beautiful job putting her journey into context and making meaning from it. I resonated deeply with her discovery of the importance of compassion. I admired the honesty and authenticity with which she writes.
My favorite part of the book was the ending. Simon does a beautiful job putting her journey into context and making meaning from it. I resonated deeply with her discovery of the importance of compassion. I admired the honesty and authenticity with which she writes.
January 4, 2026
Amateur writing and poor editing make you wonder how this book was actually published. Lizzie is a naive and entitled rich girl who uses her resources to support her passion project while the book largely follows her toxic relationship with her millionaire boyfriend who's mania and substance abuse she enables. I truly believe this book was only published because of her connections from her life of privilege, because the quality is simply bad. As someone with bipolar disorder myself, I feel Lizzie does more to reinforce stereotypes and stigma of mental illness rather than her intentions of erasing the stigma. Don't read this book.
May 30, 2021
I think Lizzie Simon will be pissed off if she reads this, but it kind of seems like an account of a woman going off on a manic journey to prove that she's successfully treated the symptoms of Bipolarity.
That said, I was well enough struck by one of her insights as to want to repeat it here: People who suffer from chemical mental health problems need counseling to deal with the emotional costs of the illness itself. I know that sounds like a big DUH, but as far as I can tell, she's the first person to have thought of this. Good for you, Lizzie Simon. Take your meds.
That said, I was well enough struck by one of her insights as to want to repeat it here: People who suffer from chemical mental health problems need counseling to deal with the emotional costs of the illness itself. I know that sounds like a big DUH, but as far as I can tell, she's the first person to have thought of this. Good for you, Lizzie Simon. Take your meds.
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